🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 2
I was struggling along with a basket in my arms, heading toward the clothesline, when I heard a low voice from behind the wall.
I’m the only one who entered the imperial palace at the age of six.
Huh. Someone’s talking about me!
A strange thrill ran through me, and I quickly hid myself close to the wall.
It was one of the habits I’d developed since coming here.
“Yeah, through Maria’s introduction.”
“What about the kid’s father?”
“They say they don’t know.”
“Then why did her mother abandon her?”
“Why else? Probably wanted to start a new life as if she never had a child.”
“Oh my.”
“Pitiful. She’s a pitiful child. But then again, who here isn’t?”
I completely agreed with that last remark.
When I first came here as a maid trainee, everyone treated me well.
That was because Maria, who had been the head maid of the annex at the time, had brought me in.
Even I—someone who usually gives back what I receive—tried hard back then to be polite and agreeable to everyone.
But after Maria left, the way people treated me changed, and I had no choice but to change as well.
“Is Lady Maria doing well?”
“How would I know?”
The head maid snapped sharply at the tactless question.
Maria was now working in the eastern wing of Rabonne Palace, where the First Prince resided.
Even for someone known for her quick thinking and diligence, it had been quite an extraordinary promotion.
The current head maid and head servant didn’t look favorably upon her. Naturally, they probably didn’t like me either, since I’d been brought in through her.
“Anyway, that’s impressive. I wish I could catch the prince’s eye too. Even Sir Xavier would do—if only I could somehow get involved.”
It seemed they believed Maria had been promoted because she seduced Declin.
Perhaps they’d even worried she might become the prince’s consort. After all, no one likes seeing someone from a similar background rise that high.
Maybe the head maid is more perceptive than I thought.
After all, Maria and the First Prince really were quite close.
I sniffed once, then picked up the basket again and hurried along. As I turned the corner, the head maid and another maid—whose face I only vaguely knew—noticed me and flinched. Their exchanged glances were filled with embarrassment.
I glanced briefly at their flustered expressions before continuing on my way.
If they were going to gossip, they could at least make it interesting… like talking about my personality.
It might’ve been fun to hear how others interpreted my “character.” Saying I was pitiful because I had no parents was such an outdated and boring take.
“Where are you going?”
Perhaps she was annoyed that I tried to pass by, or perhaps she was embarrassed at being caught talking about me, but the head maid stopped me.
I shrugged.
“You told me to finish my work.”
As I walked off briskly, I heard her mutter behind me, “That’s why I can’t bring myself to like her.”
“Annabella, from now on, this is where you’ll belong.”
Of all days, I had to hear something like that on a day I dreamed of my mother.
A mother who abandoned me to live a new life.
Honestly, I’d rather that were true.
Before entering the imperial palace, I was rarely ever called by my name.
In my small world, my mother was everything. She used to call me “ugly.”
At times I’d think, what kind of person says that? But when I saw her bright smile, any anger would fade.
Well, at least she smiled—that was something.
Around that time, I was deeply troubled.
Because I knew that the person I called “mother” would one day abandon me.
I would enter the imperial palace, become a maid, and someday serve Declin Varlum, the First Prince.
And then I would die.
The reason I knew all of this… was because I was a transmigrator.
This place was the world of a book I had read in my previous life.
Why did I have to end up in a role like this?
The Annabella I had become was a character who would be used as a pawn by the First Prince and eventually die.
The current emperor of the Etherinta Empire, William Varlum, invaded the Kingdom of Rienna just two years after ascending the throne. To crush any seeds of rebellion, he killed all members of the royal family who carried Rienna’s blood—except for Princess Evelyn, known as the Daffodil of Rienna.
The setting was quite complicated, but to summarize what I remember:
The emperor, who loved Evelyn, wanted to make her empress after she gave birth to his son.
However, in the Etherinta Empire—known as the Empire of Dragons—the “legitimacy of dragon blood” could not be ignored.
According to the founding legend of the empire, an ancient dragon appeared.
At the time, the southern continent had been suffering from endless wars against monsters for centuries.
When all hope seemed lost, the one destined to become the empire’s first emperor formed a pact with the ancient dragon and gained immense magical power.
Victories followed, and with the sacrifice of a saint who received divine revelation, a hero awakened and ultimately defeated the demon dragon—the final boss—bringing the great war between humans and demons to an end.
From then on, the kingdoms that had participated in the war came to revere the power of dragons, believing that “dragon legitimacy” flowed only in the southern lands that worshipped that power.
Unfortunately, this did not apply to the northern Kingdom of Rienna.
Naturally, Princess Evelyn of Rienna could only remain the emperor’s lover, while the official empress became Angelina, the mother of the Second Prince, Xavier.
After that, Evelyn was confined to a separate palace, where she slowly withered away and died.
On the very day she died, Xavier happened to be born.
Her funeral was modest, while Xavier’s birth was celebrated more grandly than anything before.
After Evelyn’s death, those who had secretly disliked her rejoiced, believing that the bloodline of Rienna’s royal family had finally been extinguished.
But there was still one surviving member they didn’t know about.
Declin—the son of the emperor and Evelyn.
Perhaps out of guilt over Evelyn’s death, the emperor acknowledged Declin as the First Prince. But that wasn’t enough for him.
Declin, who loved his mother more than anyone, made a decision at the age of just four:
He would reclaim his mother’s homeland.
In the end, he would succeed in killing William Varlum, ascend the throne, erase the name of the Etherinta Empire from history, and proclaim the Rienna Empire.
That’s the first half of the book I read, The Restoration of Etherinta.
After that, it’s about the son of a ducal family of great mages from Etherinta returning to restore the empire… or something like that.
I don’t remember well since I only read the first part. It wasn’t even that interesting—I just read it because the male lead’s name included “Green,” which had been my name in my previous life.
I transmigrated before the original story began.
Even at this point, some people from the fallen Kingdom of Rienna had formed a secret organization working to restore their nation. The leader of that organization was Declin.
My mother, Margo Peril, also came from a family of Rienna shamans and was a member of that group.
She approached Xavier pretending to be his lover as part of a trap—and that’s how I was born.
Now, across two generations, I had inherited the mission and entered the imperial palace.
Xavier didn’t even know I was his daughter—he didn’t even know he had a daughter at all.
How could he have known?
Before the emperor’s death in the original story, Declin’s legitimacy was questioned.
Because his eyes weren’t gold.
Xavier, on the other hand, had golden eyes, so the people of the empire placed great expectations on him. There was strong support for him as the next emperor, yet Xavier himself wanted Declin to take the throne.
Perhaps out of guilt—or perhaps he simply didn’t want to become emperor.
But Declin’s mother was from a defeated kingdom. As people from conquered nations began to rise in prominence in various fields, Declin became increasingly disliked by the empire’s citizens.
No matter how much Xavier tried to cover for his brother’s flaws by making himself look bad, it didn’t help.
And just when Xavier was about to be appointed crown prince—
He fell into ruin because of a damaging testimony from a maid named Annabella.
In other words, my role was to drive the Second Prince to his death.
Sorry, Mom, but I’m not doing it.
Original story, bring it on—I surrender.
I was just going to live quietly, like a mouse.
Declin would kill the emperor in four years.
By then, I’d be twelve.
Until then, I’d just work as a maid, save up a decent severance pay, persuade my mother, and return to the countryside where we used to live together.
